Rochester’s Select Board Monday approved two warrants for the November 18 Special Town Election. One will ask voters in the Old Colony Regional Vocational-Technical High School district (Acushnet, Carver, Lakeville, Mattapoisett, and Rochester) to approve a new school building. The other will be the town’s question seeking approval of a debt-exclusion override to fund its share of the new construction.
The vote came as the board added its own take to that Election Day approval by motioning there be no early voting allowed in Rochester with the new school question “pending Town Counsel approval.” Town Administrator Cameron Durant urged this qualifier after noting this voting provision might not be legally allowed.
Durant said, due to state mandates, the elections must be on separate warrants but on one date, and neither election can have a no-early-voting restriction. He agreed the questions Rochester voters are being asked to decide on are confusing and complicated and might need some separation. The new school building would mean a $288,000,000 borrowing measure the district’s five member towns would share in funding (with or without the help of a debt exclusion; that part is up to the individual town). Either way, Rochester’s two warrants must be run simultaneously.
Durant said, however, Rochester’s Town Counsel is studying the matter further. That’s why his ultimate suggestion was the “pending Town Counsel approval” phrasing. Select Board member Brad Morse noted absentee voting will still be allowed either way.
In other action, Durant announced a variety of grant awards the town has received. Rochester has been awarded a $66,000 Rural Development Grant to fund recodifying town bylaws. The results of this rewriting of town regulations will need to be approved at a Town Meeting, he said. Other new grants totaling $158,000 are funding new electric-vehicle charging stations ($50,000), library hotspots and digital access devices ($17,000), and Police Department radar guns (from a $25,000 traffic-safety grant). Durant said one of these new charging stations will be available for the public to utilize, for a cost.
The board approved a $41,000 contract with Vadar for new financial software services.
The board approved adopting a new wine and malt license law that will allow restaurants with this type of license to trade up to an all-alcohol license “pending Town Counsel approval.”
The board appointed Sarah Jacques and Kathryn Tarkenton to the Cultural Council.
The board appointed Keith Riquinha as a new associate member of the Zoning Board of Appeals.
The next meeting of the Rochester Select Board is scheduled for Monday, October 20 at 6:00 pm at Town Hall, 1 Constitution Way.
Rochester Select Board
By Michael J. DeCicco